Get Ready: 2015A Is Upon Us

The MagAO team is in the final stages of preparations for 2015A — Laird, Katie, and Jared depart for Chile this coming Saturday. We’re going down early to do some work on Clio and replace a motor. By the time we come home, nearly 7 weeks will have passed.

Our preparations have included laying in a winter’s worth of wasabi peas.

We have a highly unreliable supply chain when we are on MagAO ops. So we have to look out for ourselves. This is what 10 lbs of wasabi peas looks like. We’ll see how customs goes.

Over the next 2 months you can look forward to at least one post a day, from your favorite MagAO bloggers, including KT, Jared, Alycia, Kate, Kim, TJ, Jordan, and distinguished guest bloggers such as Hernan, Gabriel, Mauricio, and Alberto. It’s possible that we’ll have an occasional picture of a Viscacha or two. Also, we’ll make fun of Laird. A lot.

Now, speaking of bloggers, we’re adding a few rules regarding the “Post of the Day”. These are designed to add a little creative flair to the musical selections. Here are the new regulations:

MagAO Blog Song Of The Day Rules For 2015A
1) All posts of the day (posts with a Day X in the title) must contain a song of the day. Posts which do not comply are subject to arbitrary, punitive, and likely embarassing editing by anyone else with a password.
2) All songs posted must also be posted with a cover or remake of said song if it exists anywhere on the internet.
a) A version of the song by the same artist, i.e. live or acoustic, does count technically, but does not meet the spirit of this requirement. Abuse of this leniency will be reviewed if necessary.
b) Re-mixes (i.e. by a DJ) also count in a technical sense. Bloggers are expected to use their judgement as to whether substantial interpretive value is added by the re-mix.
c) A derivative work which merely samples or uses the sound-and-feel of the prior work does not count
c.1) An extrapolation of 2.c is that Blurred Lines can not be posted at any time for any reason.
d) Parodies count (except for parodies of Blurred Lines).
d.1) If a Weird Al parody exists, it does not meet this requirement.
d.2) However, if the song has a Wierd Al parody, it *must* be posted, excepting Weird Al parodies of Blurred Lines (see Word Crimes).
d.3) Songs generally felt to be self parodies (cf. Macklemore) must still have a second version posted.
e) Covers by Chris Daughtry do not meet this requirement.
e.1) However, if the song has been covered by Chris Daughtry, said cover *must* be posted.
e.2) Though none is known to exist, a cover of Blurred Lines by Daughtry is still subject to rule 2.c.1 above.
f) Though none is known to exist, should one be produced prior to the end of 2015A any musical production featuring both Weird Al and Chris Daughtry will not be subject to this rule, and can be posted by itself. Even if it is Blurred Lines.
g) The intent of this rule is not to restrict choices to popular songs. If no second version exists, for instance in the case of a musical score from a soundtrack, then this rule does not apply. However, note that the MagAO team will be up all night, every night, for ~40 consecutive nights. That’s a lot of time to search the internet. You had better be sure (see rule 1).

To illustrate the proper way to post a song of the day, I present the following:

Beginning with the actual song (note the Family friendly version is preferred):

I hate that version. When I hear the song, I think it should sound more like this:

You aren’t restricted to one cover of course. Here’s another good one, which is also a hint at how to win the “best poster of cover songs” award.

The following is required for compliance (though it could be used multiple times in the coming months):

Finally, the following two videos help us illustrate the difference between a cover song and a parody video. This is a funny video with a cover song:

This is a parody video, not a parody song, and as such, does not meet the requirements above: